Kālayavana
Kālayavana · kāla-yavana, “the dark Yavana”
Śaṅkha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Śaṅkha.
Kālayavana was a Yavana king of great strength, born to the muni Gārgya by the command of Bhagavān Śiva and raised in the palace of a sonless Yavana king. Eager for war, he marched on Mathurā against the Yādavas with a vast army of mlecchas. Śrī Kṛshṇa built Dvārakā for the Yādavas, then went out alone and unarmed, drew Kālayavana after him into the cave where King Mucukunda lay asleep, and there Kālayavana, kicking the sleeping king, was burned to ash by the fire of his waking gaze. The Brahma Purāṇa tells his account twice, in the line of the Yādavas and in the life of Śrī Kṛshṇa.
His birth
Sūta tells the munis that the wife of Śiśirāyaṇi, daughter of the king of Trigarta, set out to test the manhood of Gārgya, best of munis, and his seed was not shed. In the twelfth year the muni, who had been mocked, united with a cowherd maiden; she was an apsaras named Gopālī in the dress of a cowherd woman, and she bore his embryo, which no other could bear. By the command of Śiva, Kālayavana, strong as a lion, was born in Gārgya’s wife, a human woman. The front of his body was round, with a lion-like form. He grew up in the inner palace of a Yavana king who had no son, and so, as the son of the Yavana, he was called Kālayavana.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 14
The account of Kālayavana in the life of Śrī Kṛshṇa tells it so. In an assembly, Gārgya’s brother-in-law insulted him, the purohita, before the Yadus as impotent, and all the Yādavas laughed. Angered, Gārgya went to the southern country and performed tapas for a son who would be a terror to the Yadu line, worshipping Śiva and eating only iron powder. In the twelfth year Hara was pleased and granted him the vara. The king of the Yavanas, who had no son, honoured Gārgya; Gārgya united with that king’s wife, and a son was born, with a lustre like a bee’s. He was named Kālayavana, and his chest was hard as the vajra. The king crowned him in his kingdom and went to the forest.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 196
The march on Mathurā
Eager for war, Kālayavana asked, “With whom shall I fight?” and the devarshi Nārada told him of the Vṛshṇi and Andhaka clans. With an army of an akshauhiṇī he marched on Mathurā and sent a messenger. The Vṛshṇis and Andhakas, with Śrī Kṛshṇa at their head, took counsel, and honouring the intention of Śiva, who holds the Pināka, they left Mathurā to settle in Kuśasthalī, Dvārakā.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 14
In the second telling, Kālayavana, proud of his strength, asked who the mighty kings of the earth were, and Nārada named the Yādavas. He set out with crores of thousands of mlecchas and a fourfold army, and marched day after day, full of rage, against Mathurā. Śrī Kṛshṇa saw that the Yādavas were threatened from two sides, by Kālayavana and by Jarāsandha of Magadha. He asked the ocean for twelve yojanas of land and built there Dvārakā, an unbreakable fortress, with great gardens, lakes and ramparts, like Amarāvatī, the city of Indra. He settled the people of Mathurā there and went himself to Mathurā, which lay near Kālayavana.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 196
His end in Mucukunda’s cave
When the army had been moved out from there, Śrī Kṛshṇa went out unarmed, and Kālayavana saw him. He knew him for Vāsudeva, took a weapon in his hand and chased that Svāmī, whom even great yogis cannot grasp with their minds. Śrī Kṛshṇa entered the cave where King Mucukunda, a man of great valour, lay asleep. Kālayavana followed, saw a man lying there, took him for Kṛshṇa and kicked him. Mucukunda opened his eyes and looked, and in that instant Kālayavana was burned up by fire. Long before, Mucukunda had fought for the devas in the devāsura war and asked them for sleep, and they had granted him the vara that whoever woke him would at once become ash by a fire born from his body.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 196
Having destroyed Kālayavana by this means, Śrī Kṛshṇa brought his whole army and handed it to Ugrasena at Dvārakā, and the Yadu clan lived free of the fear of enemies.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 197
Vyāsa, telling the munis of the avatāras of Bhagavān Vishṇu, names among the deeds of the avatāra in the Māthura kalpa that Kālayavana met his end.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 213
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 14, 196–197, 213